Cromwell cold in opener

TINTON FALLS, N.J. - The temperature was hot and the heat index was even hotter as the Cromwell Junior League all-stars opened play yesterday in the Eastern Regional Tournament.

JOSHUA BRETT

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, August 4, 2002

About the only thing that wasn't hot was Cromwell's offense. And the Connecticut state champs' cold bats proved to be their undoing as they fell to Massachusetts kingpin North Reading, 5-0, at Hockhockson Park.

Cromwell came to Central New Jersey with a 9-1 record this summer and dreams of advancing to the Junior League World Series in Michigan next week.Those dreams can still come true, but it will now take seven wins in five days to do it, starting with today's 2 p.m. losers' bracket contest against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

"(The players) could use a day's rest," Cromwell manager Jeff Melien said of having today off before beginning the long losers' bracket road. "They'll come back strong."

Cromwell managed only three hits off of North Reading pitcher Drew Austin, who pitched a complete-game shutout with six strikeouts for the win.If Austin wasn't overpowering, he was certainly effective, in large part because his defense made every play behind him in the field, committing no errors.

With that said, Cromwell had more than its share of opportunities, especially early in the game. Cromwell's leadoff batter reached base in each of the first three innings and four of the first five, each time on a walk. Cromwell's first two hitters reached base in the top of the third when Michael Anthony walked and Nick Greenwood hit a double off the left-field fence. But Anthony was picked off of first base and Greenwood was tagged out trying to steal third, leaving Cromwell with nothing to show for its scoring chance.

"I'm not going to say that it's not smart baserunning," Melien said of his players getting thrown out on the bases. "That's baseball. (Our aggressiveness) is a big reason why we've gotten this far."

Having dodged a bullet, North Reading broke the scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Connor Larkin drew a walk. Mike Vacca followed with a double off the left-field fence to put runners on second and third with only one out. Matt Scioli then put the Massachusetts champs on the board when he drove in Larkin with a single to right.

After Austin popped out for the second out, Colin Reed hit another popup along the first-base line that looked like it would fall in foul territory. But the ball fell just inside the foul line, allowing Vacca to score for a 2-0 lead.

Cromwell pitcher Javaris Brown held North Reading in check after that, but he still ended up taking the hard-luck loss despite six innings of seven-hit ball with 10 strikeouts.

"(Brown) is a tremendous pitcher," Melien said."He got us here and he pitched well today. We just didn't score runs for him."